Method for reporting and relating firearm discharge data to a crime reporting database

ABSTRACT

A method for utilizing firearm discharge data in a crime reporting and tracking database, includes: recording one or more discharges of a firearm; transmitting information from the discharging firearm to a crime reporting and tracking database; utilizing the transmitted information to establish relationships between the discharged firearm, committed crimes, and missing persons within the crime reporting and tracking database; and wherein the recording and transmitting is carried out by devices within the firearm.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/830,107, filed Jul. 30, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporatedby reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to firearms, and more particularly to amethod and system for relating firearm discharge data to crime reportingdatabases.

2. Description of the Related Art

Crime prevention and solving committed crimes, unfortunately, is anever-ending job of law enforcement. Efforts at weapons registration andforms of gun control have not stemmed the levels of crime in society.Proposed inventions related to control and monitoring of firearm usagehave included: firearms equipped with electronic devices for determiningand recording owner gun registration, weapon identification, biometriccontrols, recognition of gun removal from a holster, when and how manyshots were fired from a weapon, radio frequency (RF) transmission ofweapon data, and tracking weapons with global positioning system (GPS)satellites.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention include a method and system forutilizing firearm discharge data in a crime reporting and trackingdatabase, the method includes: recording one or more discharges of afirearm; transmitting information from the discharging firearm to acrime reporting and tracking database; utilizing the transmittedinformation to establish relationships between the discharged firearm,committed crimes, and missing persons within the crime reporting andtracking database; and wherein the recording and transmitting is carriedout by devices within the firearm.

A method for a crime, missing person and firearm search service, themethod includes: receiving an access request to a crime, missing personand firearm search service in a database; analyzing the access requestto determine if the requested search service is for a crime or a missingperson; wherein if the access request is for a crime, the access requestcomprises a requestor name, a requester identification (ID), andspecifies a date range, a time range, a location of a crime, a relativeproximity to the location of the crime to check for firearm discharges,and the types and caliber of firearm to search for; wherein if theaccess request involves a missing person, the access request comprises arequestor name, the missing persons name, the locations where themissing person resided, the locations, dates, and time ranges themissing person were last seen, a relative proximity to the location ofthe missing person to check for firearm discharges, and the types andcaliber of firearm to search for; identifying firearms discharged duringthe specified date and time range and within the specified locationproximity; outputting firearm discharges that occur within the specifieddate range, time range, and location proximity to a crime or missingperson

A system for utilizing firearm discharge data in a crime reporting andtracking database, the system includes: one or more firearms; a computerserver; one or more networks; one or more input and output devices;wherein the one or more firearms are configured with recording andtransmitting devices; wherein the transmitting devices forwardinformation from the one or more firearms in response to a dischargefrom at least one of the firearms to a crime reporting and trackingdatabase on the computer server via the one or more networks; whereinthe transmitted information is utilized to establish relationshipsbetween the discharged firearm, committed crimes, and missing personswithin the crime reporting and tracking database; wherein thetransmitted information comprises identification of the firearm (firearmID), date, time, location and number of the discharges; wherein thecrime reporting and tracking database comprises type of crime committed,location of the criminal incident, date and time ranges of the criminalincident, and victim and suspect profile information; wherein the victimand suspect information comprises personnel information, knownresidences and whereabouts of suspects at the approximate time of thecrime; wherein in the case of a missing person, the locations where themissing person was last seen, and the dates and time ranges when theperson was thought to be missing are also included in the database;wherein the one or more input and output devices are connected to thecomputer server via the one or more networks; wherein a GUI configuredfor the one or more input and output devices facilitates the entry ofinformation and queries to the crime reporting and tracking database;and wherein the GUI is configured for displaying information outputtedfrom the crime reporting and tracking database on the one or more inputand output devices

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniquesof the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the inventionare described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimedinvention. For a better understanding of the invention with advantagesand features, refer to the description and to the drawings.

TECHNICAL EFFECTS

As a result of the summarized invention, a solution is technicallyachieved for a method and system for utilizing firearm usage andlocation data in crime reporting databases, to assist law enforcementand government agencies in solving and preventing criminal incidents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter that is regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion ofthe specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, andadvantages of the invention are apparent from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1A-1C illustrates overlay maps relating discharging fire arms tocity streets according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system for implementing embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of recording andreporting firearm discharge data according to embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating customer service requests to acrime reporting and tracking database according to embodiments of theinvention.

The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of theinvention, together with advantages and features, by way of example withreference to the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention provide a method and system for utilizingfirearm usage and location data in crime reporting and trackingdatabases, to assist law enforcement and government agencies in solvingand preventing criminal incidents.

In an embodiment of the invention, a recording device within a firearmrecords when and how many times the weapon has been discharged. Thedischarge of the firearm also initiates the wireless transmission ofinformation related to the firearm to a crime reporting and trackingdatabase. The information that is transmitted includes identification ofthe firearm (firearm ID), date, time, location and number of thedischarges. Location information may be obtained via global positioningsystem (GPS) satellites and related electronic device chip sets, or viaterrestrial infrastructure such as the cellular phone system, orInternet gateways. Methods such as triangulating an RF transmissionbetween cell sites have proven effective in locating a transmittingdevice. In a wireless local area network (WLAN), the Internet gatewayand the associated Internet protocol (IP) address may be used to locatethe discharging firearm. The monitoring and reporting electronics may beintegrated into the weapon, so as to disable the weapon if they aretampered with.

The crime reporting and tracking database includes all crimes that arecurrently unsolved. Crime statistics tracked by the database includetype of crime committed, location of the criminal incident, date andtime ranges of the criminal incident. Additional information related tothe criminal incident and stored within the database includes victim andsuspect profile information. The victim and suspect information includespersonnel information, and known residences and whereabouts of suspectsat the approximate time of the crime. In the case of an abduction ormissing person, the locations where the person was last seen, and thedates and time ranges when the person was thought to be missing are alsoincluded in the database. Evidence gathered in the course of aninvestigation may be added to the database.

In embodiments of the invention graphical user interfaces (GUI)facilitate user defined and configured searches of the crime reportingand tracking database, and provides maps and geographic overlays of thereported crimes and the firearm discharge data. FIGS. 1A-1C illustratean overlay of firearm discharge data (FIG. 1A), city crime data (FIG.1B), in a combined overlaid figure (FIG. 1C). In FIGS. 1A-1C the linesrepresent city streets, the burst pattern represents one or more firearmdischarges, and the letters C represent reported crimes. In a furtherexample, users may request a search of firearm discharges between agiven date range, and within a given radius to a crime. The user mayfurther restrict the search by specifying the type (automatic,semiautomatic, handgun, shotgun, rifle) and caliber of weapon used. TheGUI may also provide analysis tools for reviewing data within the crimereporting and tracking database such as establishing possiblerelationships between the owner of the firearm and the victim.

In embodiments of the invention, the crime reporting and trackingdatabase may be on a central server that is made available to lawenforcement and government agencies nationwide that subscribe to thecrime reporting and tracking database as a service. Alternatively, thecrime reporting and tracking database may be implemented on a local orregional basis. Subscription billing charges may be based on the amountof database system usage, or on a flat fee per unit of time. Billingsoftware for tracking usage charges, subscription fees, and usernotifications may be integrated within embodiments of the invention.Access to the crime reporting and tracking database can be controlledwith user IDs and passwords.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary system 200 for implementingembodiments of the invention that utilize firearm usage and locationdata in crime reporting and tracking databases, to assist lawenforcement and government agencies in solving and preventing criminalincidents. The system 200 includes remote devices including one or moremultimedia/communication devices 202 equipped with speakers 216 forimplementing the audio, as well as display capabilities 218 forfacilitating graphical user interface (GUI) aspects for conducting dataentry requests, searches and statistical analysis of the data within thecrime reporting and tracking database that is stored in server system206. In addition, mobile computing devices 204 and desktop computingdevices 205 equipped with displays 214 for use with the GUI of thepresent invention are also illustrated. The remote devices 202 and 204may be wirelessly connected to a network 208.

The network 208 may be any type of known network including a local areanetwork (LAN), wide area network (WAN), wireless local area network(WLAN), global network (e.g., Internet), intranet, etc. withdata/Internet capabilities as represented by server 206. Communicationaspects of the network are represented by cellular base station 210 andantenna 212. Location information for the discharging firearm 222 may beprovided by GPS information from a series of satellites 220, from signalmeasurements of RF communications with the cellular network 212 or viathe nearest Internet protocol (IP) receiving station in a WLAN or WANnetwork 208. The discharging firearm 222 is equipped with memory,monitoring, communication, and location related chip sets.

Each remote device 202 and 204 may be implemented using ageneral-purpose computer executing a computer program for carrying outthe GUI described herein. The computer program may be resident on astorage medium local to the remote devices 202 and 204, or maybe storedon the server system 206 or cellular base station 210. The server system206 may belong to a public service. The remote devices 202 and 204, anddesktop device 205 may be coupled to the server system 206 throughmultiple networks (e.g., intranet and Internet) so that not all remotedevices 202, 204, and desktop device 205 are coupled to the serversystem 206 via the same network. The remote devices 202, 204, desktopdevice 205, and the server system 206 may be connected to the network208 in a wireless fashion, and network 208 may be a wireless network. Ina preferred embodiment, the network 208 is a LAN and each remote device202, 204 and desktop device 205 executes a user interface application(e.g., web browser) to contact the server system 206 through the network208. Alternatively, the remote devices 202 and 204 may be implementedusing a device programmed primarily for accessing network 208 such as aremote client.

An example of the system 200 in operation is as follows. A firearm 222is discharged. In response to being discharged, the firearm 222transmits its stored registration information, the number of times ithas been discharged, and its location information via the network 208.The location information can be obtained from the network 208, or fromthe GPS satellites 220. The information is transferred over the network208 to the server 206 that holds the crime reporting and trackingdatabase. Users may query the crime reporting and tracking database viaremote devices 202, 204 and desktop device 205 utilizing a GUI.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of recording andreporting firearm discharge data according to embodiments of theinvention. The process starts (block 300) when a firearm is discharged(block 302) and the discharge event is recorded in a memory devicewithin the firearm (block 304). The monitoring device within the firearmcontinues to monitor for additional discharges from the firearm (block306), and begins to upload identification, location, and dischargeinformation to the server with the crime reporting and tracking database(block 308). The process ends (block 310) after a predefined period withno additional firearm discharges

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating customer service requests to acrime reporting and tracking database according to embodiments of theinvention. The process starts (block 400) with a user either requestinga crime service report (block 402) or a missing person service report(block 404) from a crime reporting and tracking database that is storedon a server. Depending on the service requested different inputs arerequired from the user. For a crime service request (block 402 is Yes),the user builds a crime service transaction request (block 408) that issent to the server. The transaction request includes the requestor'sname, a date, location, and time range of a crime of interest, andproximity to a crime to check for a firearm discharge. The user can alsorequest specific information on potential firearms found, or searchedfor including type (automatic, semiautomatic, handgun, shotgun, rifle)and caliber of weapon used.

For a missing person service request (block 404 is Yes), the user buildsa missing person service transaction request (block 410) that is sent tothe server. The transaction request includes the requestors name, themissing persons name, the locations where the missing person resided,the locations where the missing person were last seen, and the dates andtime ranges when the missing person was thought to have become missing.A proximity check for firearm discharges in relation to the missingperson data can also be requested. The user can also request specificinformation on potential firearms found, or searched for including type(automatic, semiautomatic, handgun, shotgun, rifle) and caliber ofweapon used. If the user inputs a non valid request the process isexited (block 406)

The transaction request is received at the server (block 414), and theserver determines whether a crime service request (block 414 is Yes), ora missing person request (block 416 is Yes). For a crime service request(block 418), if a match to a transaction service request is found in thedatabase (block 420 is Yes), the data extracted from the crime reportingand tracking database may include firearm discharges that were withinthe date range, time range, and proximity of the crime of interest.Additional information on a weapon of interest includes ID of owner, andtype and caliber of weapon. The data extracted is collected anddistributed to the requesting user (block 424). For a missing personrequest (block 416 is Yes), missing person data (block 422) is requestedfrom the database. If a match is found in the database (block 420 isYes) for a firearm discharge within the requested parameters, thefollowing information for the missing person is prepared and distributed(block 424) including the missing persons name, the locations where themissing person resided, the locations where they were last seen, and thedates and time ranges when the person was thought to have gone missing.If for either a crime service request (block 414) or a missing personservice request (block 416) no matches are found in the database (block420 is No), a no match found message is prepared and sent to the user(block 428). Billing data is prepared for the user (block 426) and theuser is notified of their bill (block 430), and the session is ended(block 432).

The capabilities of the present invention can be implemented insoftware, firmware, hardware or some combination thereof.

As one example, one or more aspects of the present invention can beincluded in an article of manufacture (e.g., one or more computerprogram products) having, for instance, computer usable media. The mediahas embodied therein, for instance, computer readable program code meansfor providing and facilitating the capabilities of the presentinvention. The article of manufacture can be included as a part of acomputer system or sold separately.

Additionally, at least one program storage device readable by a machine,tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable bythe machine to perform the capabilities of the present invention can beprovided.

The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be manyvariations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) describedtherein without departing from the spirit of the invention. Forinstance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps maybe added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered apart of the claimed invention.

While the preferred embodiments to the invention has been described, itwill be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in thefuture, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall withinthe scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construedto maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for implementing a crime, missing personand firearm search service, the method comprising: receiving via a firstelectronic computing device an access request to a crime, missing personand firearm search service in a database stored on an electronic serversystem; analyzing via a second electronic computing device the accessrequest to determine if the requested search service is for a crime or amissing person; wherein if the access request is for a crime, the accessrequest comprises a requestor name, a requester identification (ID), andspecifies a date range, a time range, a location of a crime, a relativeproximity to the location of the crime to check for firearm discharges,and the types and caliber of firearm to search for; wherein if theaccess request involves a missing person, the access request comprises arequestor name, the missing persons name, the locations where themissing person resided, the locations, dates, and time ranges themissing person were last seen, a relative proximity to the location ofthe missing person to check for firearm discharges, and the types andcaliber of firearm to search for; identifying firearms discharged at adischarge location during the specified date and time range and withinthe specified location proximity in response to information electricallytransmitted to the electronic server system via a respective firearm,the firearms discharged being identified independently from the reportedcrime or missing person, and outputting identified firearm dischargesthat occur within the specified date range, time range, and locationproximity to a reported crime or missing person to the first electroniccomputing device in response to the access request; displaying via anelectronic graphic user interface the discharge location with respect tothe location of the reported crime; and determining a possiblerelationship between at least one of the identified firearm dischargesand the reported crimes based on a proximity between at least onedischarge location and at least one location of a crime; and identifyingthe missing person based on the identified discharge location, andcontrolling the electronic graphic user interface to display informationcorresponding to the identified missing person.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the access request is inputted with the graphical userinterface (GUI).
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the GUI is configuredto construct geographic overlays of the firearm discharges with thecrimes and missing persons within the database.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein the database comprises type of crime committed, location ofthe crime, date and time ranges of the crime, and victim and suspectprofile information; wherein the victim and suspect informationcomprises personnel information, known residences and whereabouts ofsuspects at the approximate time of the reported crime; and wherein inthe case of a missing person, the locations where the missing person waslast seen, and the dates and time ranges when the person was thought tobe missing are also included in the database.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein usage of the database is subscription fee based; and wherein thesubscription fees are based on the amount of usage of the database. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein usage of the database is subscription feebased; and wherein the subscription fees are based on a flat fee perunit of time.